West blocks Moscow’s UN plea to reinstate ceasefire at MH17 crash site

Parts of wreckage are seen at the site where the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed, near the village of Rozsypne (Rassypnoye) in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine August 1, 2014. (Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin)

The UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution on reinstating the ceasefire at the site of the Malaysian Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine after Russia’s draft was blocked by Western states.

“Unfortunately, some UNSC members have reacted in their usual
way as they oppose any criticism of the Ukrainian
leadership,” Churkin said, adding that Lithuania, the US,
and Australia began proposing inappropriate amendments to the
text.

“A few countries – such as Lithuania and the US – started to
suggest amendments, saying that [Russia’s] draft lacks criticism
towards the people they call ‘separatists’,” Churkin added.

The countries that rejected Russia’s draft resolution to the UNSC
“are responsible for the endless bloodshed in the southeast
of Ukraine” as they are indulging Kiev, Russia’s Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.

Moscow’s resolution did not concern the actions of the sides in
the conflict, the Russian envoy to the UN said. It was rather
dedicated to the announcement published on the website of the
Ukrainian commission investigating the MH17 crash. According to
that announcement, Kiev would not stick to the ceasefire, as
international investigators had left the crash site.

As Churkin indicated, later on, the Ukrainian delegation to the
UN informed the Security Council that this was not true, and the
ceasefire is still in force.

Thus Russia submitted a document urging the Ukrainian authorities
to publicly clarify the situation and calling on the sides of the
conflict “to restrain from any actions that could violate the
integrity” of the crash side.

The plane was brought down on July 17 with the loss of 298 people
in the restive Donetsk region, Ukraine's east. The UN Security
Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an
international investigation into the MH17 incident and demanded
safe access to the site for investigators. Russia's draft
insisted the resolution should not be violated.

In the wake of the decision, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
announced a unilateral ceasefire in a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile)
area around the site of the crash. However, shelling and fighting
in the area has continued, hampering the experts' work several
times in the past weeks.

But on Thursday Kiev suspended the truce with self-defense forces
at the crash site.

"The ceasefire in the plane crash zone, announced by the
President of Ukraine at the request of international experts,
which has been thoroughly observed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,
will not be in place at the beginning of the second phase of the
investigation," the Ukrainian government said.

The government claims that the international mission has been
halted because of “terrorists’ provocations” who
“posed threats to the lives” of the recovery mission
members.

On Friday, Kiev promised to renew the ceasefire in the 20
kilometer zone around the MH17 crash site, immediately after they
receive a request from the international investigation group.

The suspension of the ceasefire in the MH17 crash area is a
direct violation of the UN resolution, Vitaly Churkin stressed:

“The truce was approved by UN Security Council resolution
2166, thus it is a clear violation of the resolution and will
have very serious consequences for international inspectors'
abilities to conduct the investigation when they decide to return
to the area.”

Before the ceasefire was canceled, the Netherlands, who lead the
international probe, announced it was halting the mission to
recover victims and debris of the July 17 MH17 crash because of
fighting between Ukrainian forces and rebels in the area.

The international investigating team arrived at the site days
after the tragic incident, delayed for security reasons. Experts
are expected to resume their efforts once the situation allows.

Currently, at least three areas containing the Boeing-777’s
debris remain unexamined by the international mission, according
to the Ukrainian government. The majority of experts will leave
Ukraine until a decision on resuming the operation is made, it
said in a statement.